Things concerning Jews in Portland and everywhere that happen here and in Israel coming from an American-Israeli.

Friday, December 21, 2012

End of World or New Beginning? The View From a Jew's Position

Nadene Goldfoot
Here we are on rainy December 21, 2012, the day the Mayan calendar ended. It's also the day all the planets are lining up in a straight row with the sun, which caused a lot of eyebows to arch as this only happens every 26,000 years, which the Mayans knew about. It's also the first day of winter. They invented this calendar almost 2,000 years ago when Jerusalem was already under Roman occupation. By the year 70 CE, Jerusalem would fall to the Romans who burned this important city down and marched away all the best of the population.

The Mayans of Central America and Mexico measured time in 394-year periods called "baktuns." A few anthropologists believe today is the end of the 13th baktun, (5,122 years) which is most interesting as the Jewish calendar states that this 2012 is the year 5,772. We're only 650 years off from each other. but others have uncovered Mayan glyphs that speak of dates happening in the future, showing that this was not meant to be the end of the world. Glad to hear that! The way the world is going, they could have been right. As far as that goes, We Americans are preparing ourselves as we are all going to fall off the fiscal cliff by the middle of January! They also counted every 260 day grouping as a Tzolkin, but maintained a 365 day solar year. I'd never pass their tests on dating.

We had many Jews living in Greece. The Holocaust killed about 60,000 Greek Jews. When the Nazis occupied Greece they smashed their graves, but the Greeks have now gathered up 668 fragments of headstones that were buried in Thessaloniki's ground. Daivd Saltiel said most of the gravestones found dated from about 1850 up to WWII. Gravestones there not only would have had the names and names of their father in Hebrew but these also listed their occupations; a genealogist's fantastic find.

We knew that Abbas's gaining UN recognition as a non-member observer state in November spelled problems for Israel as the UN is against Israel no matter what. This move gave the Palestinians undeserved power. It's their reward for attacking Israel with mortars, missiles and rockets for the past 12 years. It weakened the UN!

It looks like Palestinians are now casting aspersions on Netanyahu, intimating they cannot achieve peace with him. That's because he's very intelligent and not easily scared. Netanyahu has been asking Abbas to the peace table ever since he's been prime minister in 2009. He's just not giving away the baby in the bathtub. Arabs and Jews are used to dealing in the shuk. They never take the first offer, but the game is to get as much at a lower price as possible. So Abbas is not dealing with Obama. He's dealing with someone used to dealing, and that speaks for all Israelis. They are also Middle-Easterners and shuk educated.

"2013 will see a new Palestinian political track. There will be new rules in our relationship with Israel and the world," said Hussam Zumlot, Abbas's aid. The Palestinians are chaffing over Netanyahu's statement about building in Jerusalem, where they think they can take over and make East Jerusalem their capital. East Jerusalem is part of west, south and north Jerusalem and is the whole capital of Israel. The city is doing very nicely and is under an Israeli mayor who keeps them all happy along with all the tourists who come to see Jerusalem. Jews had to wait until 1967 to see East Jerusalem which includes the most dearest and precious areas to Jews, such as the Western wall, the wall that encircled the Temple of Solomon. That's because Jordan had seized East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria illegally and held it until 1967 when they and all their Muslim neighbors ganged up and attacked Israel for a sure enough win, which they didn't accomplish. The outcome was that Israel took both which were on the docket to be part of the Jewish Homeland in the first place until Jordan had taken matters into their own hands.

Why is it that the Palestinians want East Jerusalem in the first place? Jerusalem is not a part of their Muslim religion. There is only one place that is holy to them and that is where Mohammed went to heaven on his white horse and came back. Otherwise, Mecca and Medina are their holy cities. No, they want it because it is most special to Jews. When Jordan was occupying, they destroyed Jewish cemeteries, using them as latrines. They didn't allow Jews or others there for tourism. Under Israeli rule, all are treated fairly. Many Israelis wake up to the call of the muezzin from his minaret 5 times daily for Muslims who pray facing Mecca.. The Palestine Abbas is planning for will be Judenrein, meaning no Jew will be allowed to live there or enter. We call this apartheid. "Judenrein ("clean of Jews") was a Nazi term to designate an area "cleansed" of Jewish presence during The Holocaust."

Evidently the UN thinks this is okay as they have recognized Palestine which is giving them the green light to do as they wish. This creates huge problems for Israel as there are villages, towns and cities in Judea and Samaria that are built in zones that were acceptable to be under Israeli rule. Some Jews have built outside the zones in places that had special Jewish history and were treasured to the most religious of us. After all, this was the Jewish Kingdom of Judah originally, established after King Solomon died. The first king of Judah was Rehoboam, his son in 933 BCE. The place is full of our Jewish history.

Sixty-Nine year old John Kerry (December 11, 1943) has just been named the new Secretary of State of USA. Hillary has retired and Susan Rice declined. We'll soon see how he treats Israel. Will the new baktun bring us a man with knowledge for a change along with wisdom and empathy or will he just be following orders? It should be worth something to be so declared on December 21, 2012.

About Me

I'm the American Nadene Goldfoot. Another lives in England. I'm the one who went to Israel and lived there from 1980 to the end of 1985. I'm an amateur genealogist for our family who also has expanded interests into dna. I now spend my time writing in my 3 blogs teaching about Israel and defending her position.

On my tree I have found Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, RASHI, and King David through DNA testing. Another branch holds the kings and queens of England by genealogy. When current events become deplorable, I turn to this hobby for a lift. It's all whetted my appetite for ancient history of Israel.